The present invention relates to a turnaround device for rod-like articles, in particular cigarettes.
The turnaround device of the present invention is particularly adapted to be used for arranging filter cigarettes which are initially positioned adjacent one another in two rows and aligned together in pairs with their filters facing one another, into a single row with their filters all disposed at the same end. In the following description reference will only be made to the specific field of use described above without, however, any loss of generality since the present invention can advantageously be used, without substantial modifications, for turning around any rod-like object.
In the manufacture of filter cigarettes it is known to proceed by forming pairs of lengths of cigarette which are aligned with one another. The facing ends of the cigarette lengths of each pair are subsequently connected together by means of a double filter, that is to say a filter the length of which is twice that of the filter for a single cigarette. Each assembly thus formed is then separated by cutting the said double filter into equal parts in such a way as to obtain two cigarettes each with a complete filter.
Once the cutting of the double filter has been performed the cigarettes thus obtained are caused to advance transversely of their axes along two parallel rows by means of a conveyor device, and can be sent on from this latter to two separate packaging machines each fed from an associated said row of cigarettes.
Alternatively, both the said rows of cigarettes can be supplied to a single packaging machine after having turned the cigarettes of one of the said rows round by 180.degree. onto the other row in such a way as to form a single row of cigarettes advancing transversely of their axes and all having their filters disposed on one and the same side. The best known turnaround devices normally include a conveyor device constituted by a cylindrical body which is rotatable about its axis and carries on its outside first and second rows of cigarette-carrier cradles.
Cradles of both the said rows are normally movable with respect to the conveyor device; in particular, the cradles of the first row are normally able to translate transversely of their axes in a radial direction with respect to the said cylindrical body, whilst the cradles of the second row are normally able to rotate, each about an associated axis at its end facing the corresponding cigarette of the first row and skew with respect both to the axis of rotation of the said cylindrical body and to the axis of the associated cradle. From the above it can be seen that known turnaround devices of the type described above, because of the necessity of displacing all the cradles, are extremely complicated from the structural point of view and, therefore, of high cost and low reliability, especially when driven at the extremely high velocities required by modern packaging machines.